The first day of summer not only brought with it more tourists and typical Rhode Island beach traffic, but the further development of my logo project at Hasbro (detailed in my last entry). It seems that after the first two options I make for every design, I hit a major roadblock. See what I did there. It takes some deep thought and usually a fresh start to get to a point where the idea is finally “outside of the box.”

Some research on shapes and typography led me to a place where I could start to process exactly what message the company needed to convey with the logo and an idea that I believed would maximize the name of the entity with its mission and purpose (of which I cannot disclose).

Because of the helpful nature of Waynesburg University’s professors, I was able to send my advisers and a mentor my logo prototype and get some excellent feedback. From there, I was able to improve the logo more than what I ever expected. Getting this feedback and “peer review” was a necessary step before sending the logo to my supervisor at Hasbro. It probably saved my supervisor a lot of time because now I can give him/her the best option possible.

The logo design process for this particular logo helped me tremendously in the process of another, which was given to me last week. I have already made strides toward what I think is a good option for the team. Time and more thought will tell if that is true.

During these last two weeks I have also had the opportunity to take some short online classes. When I had time between projects, I would take some of these classes and I have already learned more than I thought a video could teach me. I learned the science behind product photography and positioning objects in ways that make sense for say, a catalog or an advertisement.

I learned about designing online portfolios in preparation for the design of my own to showcase all I have done during this terrific internship. I also learned that different shapes influence the feel of a logo. For instance, a circle conveys the idea of flow and movement, while a square gives the impression of structural integrity and rigidness. So a circle may be good for a medical facility to convey its current and dynamic nature, while an academic institution would benefit from a square logo to show its structured nature.

Most importantly, during these past few weeks I have learned the value of dedication to a project. It may seem that your first idea is awesome, but I promise you, the next one will be better because you have given the subject matter more thought. Stay tuned for next week.

Being a broadcaster takes diligence, preparation and a lot of practicing; you can’t make it in the business if you don’t know the games.

The Waynesburg University broadcasting camp, run by Lanny Frattare, is a wonderfully delightful and easy way to start your career. The camp shows you basics of the business and the basics of how to announce different sports. This experience is an excellent building block.

I know from my experience that I gained a new aspect on how this business works, how much more I can know, and how much preparation is put into each and every single program, whether it is radio play-by-play for the majors or something like a high school football game. No matter what you do, make it look and sound professional, for that portrays a good image of yourself and gives you practice and experience under your belt.

On the topic of being prepared, I began sweating profusely knowing that I had to do baseball play-by-play at the camp, for I knew I didn't know baseball that well, but I knew the basics. I calmed down after I found out that we weren’t going live, that we had a partner, and that, no matter what, the Waynesburg University broadcasting team and my newly made friends had my back.

Speaking of newly made friends, I came to the camp and instantly couldn’t help thinking, “This is going to be super awkward. I won’t get to know many of these people, and I will probably be a loner, or I will be behind in what I know.” That wasn’t the case. The group I went with was great. We all understood that some of us were new, that some people didn’t watch all sports 24/7 and that we would be friends.

Once I got in my room after stepping out of my parents car, I saw that my roommate wasn’t there. At first, I got a little excited because I thought I would have no roommate, but my roommate showed. Hs name was Tanner Widomski, and Tanner and I ended up spending a lot of time hanging out and talking. He was in the same case as I was—he was new in the broadcasting world. So some nights Tanner and I would look over pages and practice together. I honestly couldn’t ask for a better roommate. He and I were just like brothers.

All of us created a relationship with one another. We all talked sports, we all had our favorites, we all had rivals/ teams we hated, yet we all got along. Sometimes there would be heated discussions, yet we all were friends. My favorite thing about this camp was that I can honestly see these guys and girls going out and being broadcasters and announcers. I bet in as little as 10 years one of these kids will be doing the dream, making it happen.

I'd like to thank Lanny Frattare so much for this experience. Thanks, Lanny, for being a great and wonderful role model. Thank you to all the students, staff and professors who joined Lanny.

At a time when higher education is under the microscope, studies abound concerning which schools place the highest percentage of students in graduate schools and jobs, which lead to the highest annual income, and the list could continue. Instead of focusing on the names of institutions, however, what about looking into what students actually do during their four years?

A recent Gallup Poll did just that, finding students who “forged meaningful connections with professors or mentors” are the same people “who feel happy and engaged in their jobs [and] are the most productive” as a result.

At Waynesburg University, 93 percent of first-year students and 91 percent of seniors rated their overall experience as “excellent” or “good,” according to the University’s 2013 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) results. Additionally, NSSE reported that Waynesburg students talked about career plans with a faculty member 28 percent more than students at other Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) schools.

What exactly does that look like? Mike Cipoletti, Director of the Forensic Science program, said he knows every student in the program, from the freshmen to the seniors—a direct result of the University’s 14:1 student/faculty ratio. Cipoletti said the seniors spend plenty of time in his office, especially close to graduation.

"That’s why most of us are here,” he said. “We come to a small institution like this, so we can have more face time and interaction with the students. It’s not even just on the academic side of things—it’s the personal interactions, too. It’s trying to help these students figure out how to become leaders, how to become service-oriented people, how to give back to their communities, and you know, that’s the best part about it.”

Provost Dr. Jacquelyn Core agrees, citing the University’s commitment to service as another way students and faculty forge close ties with one another.

“When a student is serving right alongside a faculty member, it adds more depth to the relationship, and it’s all about that ability to form relationships,” Core said. “I also think it goes both ways because it helps faculty members to feel more invested in the students, too.”

As the survey undertaken by Gallup—which polled 30,000 graduates of all ages in all 50 states—proved, Waynesburg’s mentor-like approach to teaching, academic advising and career counseling works. And the institution’s 96 percent career path rate (for those still wondering about those buzzwords) further illustrates that point.

Students are not only furthering their education in graduate schools and obtaining jobs in their respective fields, they are excelling in whatever path they choose.

Take Ryan Devlin, for example. A 2007 Waynesburg alumnus, Devlin received the honor of Pennsylvania’s 2013 “Teacher of the Year” and also became a finalist for the 2014 National Teacher of the Year Award. He, too, cites the holistic approach to a Waynesburg education as a major factor in his success.

“[Waynesburg is] just a great place where everyone is a mentor to you, and it’s not just about having a great college professor—it’s about everyone here,” Devlin said. “One of the things that’s really unique about Waynesburg University is that it really educates the entire student.”

Part of how the University “educates the entire student,” as Devlin put it, is through the school’s liberal arts philosophy. Core, in her role as Provost, is of the opinion that this approach to education is simply invaluable.

“I truly believe that you cannot put a price tag on the type of well-rounded person you can become through a liberal arts education,” Core said. “It’s really easy outside of a liberal arts background to get pigeon-holed in your field of study. You may become an expert in that field but not get the background needed to become a good citizen in all parts of society, whether that is servant leadership, environmental stewardship or whatever that might be. I think there’s a level of knowledge with a liberal arts education that makes you more conversant in a wider range of societal issues.”

For those still interested in a few of those buzzwords and rankings mentioned above, check out http://www.waynesburg.edu/ranking to learn more about Waynesburg’s recent distinctions.

Upon receiving the acceptance email from my soon-to-be supervisor, I was ecstatic to be selected as the 2014 Corporate Design Studio intern at Hasbro in Pawtucket, RI. The world’s leading toy company and inventor of the first action hero, G.I. Joe, Hasbro’s mission is to provide hope, service and play to all children. It has been four weeks since my first day at Hasbro, and I have already done so much with the company. I have participated in community and employee engagement events, learned how to finish a printed piece of artwork for presentation and was given responsibility of a project for a colleague, just to mention a few.

My first week consisted of getting to know the company. I studied the official Hasbro Brand Guide, familiarized myself with the assets on the servers, created a logo now used on the employee network site and toured the city-block square sized building I work in. This was my “getting to know Hasbro” week. Every intern has to go through it. I met my colleagues, supervisors, lunch-ladies, security guards and all of the people I would be spending my whole summer working with.

By the time week two came, I was very familiar with the people in the studio and my supervisors. I was given the project of creating new room name signs for most of the rooms in two of Hasbro’s main buildings. This entailed the design of the signs and an observatory role in the entire printing process from estimates to final comping.

Week three was when my time in the studio became more familiar and I started to understand the way that Hasbro does things. At this point, I was extremely comfortable in my work environment and becoming more excited to go in to the office each day. This week I started design work for a colleague in the community relations department of Hasbro. I assisted with various small design tasks and became familiar with the corporate social responsibility mission of the company. One project I am currently working on that started in week three is a wall collage depicting the hope, service and play of Hasbro. The knowledge from this project and others is helping me greatly in the thinking of my practicum project for the Department of Communication in the fall.

I am currently in week four and it has, as always, been a great learning experience. I am becoming more familiar with the locations of the content I need for designs and how the design studio operates. One project that is really exciting is the development of a logo for a Hasbro related entity. Due to security reasons I cannot go deeper into what the logo is for, however I will be learning how logos are made. I will be conducting research on color, typeface, shape and other aspects of the logo that will have to match its owner’s mission and purpose.

I look forward to what the summer has in store for this internship and what I can learn to make it worthwhile for Hasbro and my career. It has truly been a joy working at Hasbro these past four weeks.

I find myself here packing up my things and I honestly can't imagine how it's time to get prepare to leave already. I've done so much this semester, seen so many things and had so many new experiences, that looking at myself now I can tell there's a difference between who I am and who I was when I arrived. That girl was a tangle of nerves and uncertainty, and now I feel so much more confident in myself and in my faith, as well as so much more enriched by experiencing another part of the globe. It's an experience like no other, and I couldn't feel more blessed to have had such an opportunity.

I've been kind of MIA from this for over a month because I was exploring the rest of the United Kingdom and Ireland. I took as many pictures in three weeks as I have the rest of the semester combined, and it's a bit surreal to me that I've gotten to go all of those places- London, Bristol, Bath, Cardiff, Inverness, Loch Ness, Stirling, Edinburgh, Dublin, Galway, and the long stretches of landscape in between. I met a myriad of new people from all over the world and saw places that some people only dream of visiting. It wasn't all butterflies and rainbows, of course, with chilly nights, strict money management, missing buses, getting lost, and getting sick. I'm happy for those parts, too, though, because if anything is a really good test of faith, traveling troubles are; like this whole semester, really, it truly was through God's grace that finding solutions to our problems were possible.

If anyone ever asks me, I would hands down recommend studying abroad. If not that, then just travel in general. You don't realize just how much more there is out there until you do; now that I've had a taste, I can't wait until I can head back out and see some other corners of the map. Study abroad makes seeing more places and spending more time, as well as learning more about the culture, more possible than simply traveling does. It also provides a setting where you grow and discover things about yourself almost as much as you do about where you are staying. Still, though, even if it's just a trip for a week or two weeks, it is an intensely beautiful and astounding world we've been given, and if the opportunity presents itself, I can't imagine not taking the chance to explore it.